Armour (Hisako Ichiki)
Armor (Hisako Ichiki) is a fictional character who exists in Marvel Comics' shared universe, the Marvel Universe. She is a mutant Japanese teenager who is enrolled at the Xavier Institute who retains her powers after the events of Decimation. She first appeared in Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #4. Fictional character biography Student at Xavier's Hisako Ichiki is a young girl whose greatest aspiration is one day to be an X-Man. Hisako was one of the students without an official squad before M-Day. However, she may have been a part of Iceman's Squad, Excelsiors, or Beast's Squad, Exemplars, both of which never had officially listed students. Along with her friend and fellow student, Wing (whom, after his death, she later describes as being her best friend), Hisako is attacked in the halls of the Xavier Institute by the alien villain Ord of the Breakworld. Hisako and Wing attempt to oppose Ord, but are overpowered. While both teenagers survive the attack, Wing discovers that he has been injected with a "cure" for his mutant ability of flight. Despondent, he commits suicide after some goading from a Danger Room hologram of her. In the wake of this tragedy, Hisako, her teacher Kitty Pryde, and several Xavier students find themselves trapped in a sentient and hostile Danger Room with Wing's reanimated corpse. Danger, as the intelligence is named by the X-Men, eventually leaves the Institute. When M-Day hit, she was one of 27 students to maintain her powers. She participated in Emma Frost's Battle Royale which determined who will train to be an X-Man. Hisako later appeared alongside the New X-Men when the Acolytes attack the mansion. Her appearance is extremely brief and with no dialogue. She is recognizable only because she "Armors up" during the fight. Member of the X-Men Hisako finds classmate Blindfold "crying" in the restroom.Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 #15 While trying to comfort Blindfold, Blindfold tries to convince Hisako that they are soon "to lose another one," as Wolverine, believing he is a defenseless child due to the manipulations of Cassandra Nova, barges into the restroom, followed closely by the feral Beast. Beast attacks Blindfold, but Hisako uses her powers to fight off Beast with a large blast of psionic energy from her psi-body armor. Exhausting herself, she faints. Blindfold and Hisako make their way through the Institute. Blindfold tells Hisako that someone is awake in the infirmary; they find the unconscious bodies of Colossus and Cyclops.Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3'' #16 Soon after, both Ord and Danger attack the mansion, where they are confronted by Hisako and then Wolverine where the young girl holds her own only to end up wounded by Wolverine's claws. Although she only receives minor injuries, things do not get any better when Cassandra Nova chooses Hisako to be her new host body. It is left unknown if Cassandra was successful in getting Emma Frost to transfer her consciousness into Hisako, as S.W.O.R.D. beams the team, Danger, Ord, and Hisako into a spaceship headed for the Breakworld. The team and Hisako find that S.W.O.R.D. have abducted the X-Men and Hisako because they need heroes to fight a threat: Breakworld has a weapon capable of destroying the Earth. After flying through space, Ord sends the ship's coordinates to Breakworld's ruler, and he sends a fleet to attack the ship. When the attack is over, the ship is heavily damaged and the X-Men are separated. Hisako ends up with Wolverine. Hisako is given membership to the X-Men and Shadowcat's uniform. After commenting on how she had a test that week, Wolverine tells her that she is an X-Man now, and she is there to save the world. She picks the codename Armor, which Logan said would be like calling himself "Claws." As the groups gather, they confuse her by calling everyone by their first names instead of their codenames. Later, Wolverine and Armor are captured as Emma and the remaining X-Men try to free Cyclops. It is then revealed through a flashback that Leviathan is a fake and that Wolverine and Armor were told to be captured so the X-Men would have men inside Kruun's palace. Kruun only captured and brought Cyclops back to life so as to question him about the fake Leviathan. Cyclops then uses his newly-regained powers to knock out Kruun and free Wolverine and Armor. Back on earth, Armor attempts to console Wolverine after losing Shadowcat by forcing him to fight/train with her.Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1 Messiah Complex During Messiah Complex, some of the New X-Men launch a pre-emptive strike against the Purifiers. Hisako joins them and while spying on the Purifers, she is impressed by X-23’s senses. After breaking into the Washington base and getting into a brief tussle with the Purifers they are ambushed by the Reavers, who mortally wound Hellion. Pixie manages to teleport the team out and are spread between Washington and the Institute. Hisako is brought back to the mansion by Iceman with the other New X-Men. When Predator X showed up at the mansion, Hisako teamed up with Gentle and battled it in the infirmary. Pixie believes X-23 can defeat the monster and teleports it and the entire team, along with Hisako, to the battle between the Marauders and the X-Teams taking place on Muir Island. Manifest Destiny Hisako is currently a full member of the X-men and is working alongside them in San Francisco. She is currently receiving classes from Wolverine in combat and classes from Cyclops in tactics. She is thinking of changing her codename because Wolverine keeps mocking her for her choice of Armor. She later accompanies the team to a spaceship graveyard known as Chaparanga where she performs a fastball special with Wolverine and confronts a mysterious man, dubbed Subject X who they find fixing and restarting the eponymous "ghost box" in a spaceship. Subject X is defeated but kills himself rather than surrender information about his intentions and "the Annex."Astonishing X-Men #26 The X-Men locate Tian, which is an uncharted area of China that no surveillance or satellite system can get through, not even the Chinese government or Cerebra. The X-Men are able to sneak into Tian and discover the headquarters of a group of mutants from another dimension. Sadly, they seem to be dying because of the effects of M-Day.Astonishing X-Men #27 As Armor and Logan go off to search the temple for anyone else, they come across a man who can fire lasers from his fingers. Armor is shocked when the laser goes through her armor and gets shot in the arm. After the X-Men take down their foes, they reveal to the X-Men they have a mutual friend, Forge.Astonishing X-Men #28 After finding Forge on Mt. Wundegore and discovering he has gone mad, he tries to open the Ghost Box. Thanks to the assistance of Abigail Brand and Beast, who borrows Hisako's phone, Brand fires a world-destroying laser at the Ghost Box and the phone, destroying it as well as much of the area while the X-Men escape.Astonishing X-Men #30 She is also sharing a room with Pixie and X-23.Uncanny X-Men #505 During an attack by the Red Queen's Sisterhood, Armor is shown scared and hiding with X-23 when they are attacked by Chimera only to be teleported out by Pixie before her attack could succeed.Uncanny X-Men #510 Secret Invasion Hisako is seen working alongside Cannonball and Colossus when the Skrulls invade San Francisco. Utopia Hisako is seen watching the protests between Humanity Now and Pro-Mutant Rights protestors. Hisako is then seen during the riots in San Francisco with Karma, Match, Angel and Bling trying to keep calm.Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 She is later made a part of a team by Cyclops to take down the Dark X-Men''Dark Avengers'' #8 and participates in the final fight against Norman Osborns forces, teaming up with X-23 and Pixie in taking on Daken.Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus One-shot Powers and abilities Hisako can generate psionic body armor that grants her superhuman strength and durability. The body armor protects her from powerful attacks and greatly strengthens the force behind her offensive blows. To some extent, she can shape her armor, as when she formed claws in a training session with Wolverine. Hisako's armor is apparently strong enough to survive the heat caused from a long fall through the atmosphere. She can also cause her armor to be able to release a large amount of solid, concussive energy at once, but it may be difficult to perform. However, her armor is vulnerable to lasers as she has been struck by a laser based attack when investigating the five mile (8 km) strip of forest in China known as Tian. This vulnerability is explained when she stated that her armor still has to let light through.''Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 #28 Wolverine is able to pierce through Hisako's armor with his adamantium claws, although he is not able to go through it with the rest of his body.Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #13 In the same issue, Hisako, when asked by Wolverine what her powers "are made of," she replies, "It's...my family. I...I mean, the line of my ancestors passes this strength, this protection that I can access, it's hard to..." and trails off. In a recent issue of Wolverine Origins, Hisako's armor is shown to be able to withstand blows from the Muramasa blade, and is stated to be composed of memory, the only "material" that the blade cannot cut through. Hisako has also received combat training from Wolverine and classes in tactics from Cyclops.Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 #25 Other versions Leader of the X-Men In Runaways, a time-displaced future version of Gertrude Yorkes mentioned a future team of X-Men led by Hisako. Like Gertrude's Avengers, they were decimated by the villainous incarnation of Victor Mancha, known as "Victorious." Hisako and Gert are stated to be the last of the X-Men and Avengers, respectively and Hisako mentions that she does not have enough energy to generate her armor in a fight against Victorious.Runaways vol. 2 #2 Ghost Boxes In a variation of the Ghost Boxes storyline, two alternate versions of Hisako have been depicted. The first is a different ending to Astonishing X-Men #26. Cyclops and Wolverine are taken out by the Annex. The Annex then open a Ghost Box and a Sentinel merged Magneto comes through and kills Emma Frost and Storm leaving Hisako the only surviving member of the Astonishing X-Men.Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1 In another alternate future, set 5 years after the Annex destroy the world, Hisako, Beast, who now has a child-like mentality, and Wolverine, who now uses a wheelchair, are the last people on earth. Kitty Pryde apparently returns to earth and organizes an evacuation. After traveling to the evacuation point and finding out it was really a trap, Hisako breaks Beast's neck and burns Wolverine until his healing factor cancels out and dies leaving her the last person on earth.Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #2 Bibliography * Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #4-5, 7-9, 13, 15-24 by Joss Whedon * Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #25-28 By Warren Ellis * Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1-2 by Warren Ellis * Runaways vol. 2 #2 by Brian K. Vaughan * New X-Men vol. 2 #23 and #25 by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost * X-Men: The 198 Files by Eric J. Moreels, Marc-Oliver Frisch, and Brian E. Wilkinson * Giant Sized Astonishing X-Men #1 by Joss Whedon Footnotes External links * Uncanny X-Men.net - Yearbook Entry on Hisako * Official Character Bio at Marvel.com fr:Armor (comics) it:Hisako Ichiki pt:Hisako Ichiki